This invention is directed to the playing of musical instruments, and more particularly, to an improved pick and/or pick holder for use in playing stringed musical instruments.
While playing musical instruments, musicians frequently exert large amounts of energy and as a result their hands may become oily and sweaty. Because of such oily and sweaty hands, traditional flat picks which are used to play stringed musical instruments may become difficult to hold onto while playing. This is true particularly when the instrument's strings are of a heavier gauge. While attempts in the prior art have been made to improve the gripability of picks, none have been particularly successful.
In the plectrum or pick prior art, those persons skilled in the art are aware that flat shaped picks may be enhanced for gripping by providing the surfaces thereof with a roughened finish. Accordingly, picks may be molded or otherwise formed with front and back surfaces including ridges or otherwise roughened textures. While such grip-enhanced surfaces may improve gripability to some degree, users of these picks still experience the pitfalls of non grip-enhanced picks. That is, since these picks having ridges or otherwise roughened surfaces are not personalized to the pick user, the picks still tend to allow gripability problems.
Another design for increasing the gripability of picks is to form the picks with recesses on one or both sides thereof, in the area of the pick adapted to be grasped by the musicians fingertips. Frequently, these recesses are in the shape of semicircular indents having a constant depth. While these indents improve gripability to some degree, overall grip enhancement is still insufficient since such indents do not conform to all of the various shapes of fingertips among stringed instrument musicians. That is, since the size and shape of fingertips vary from person to person, the semicircular or similarly shaped indents on guitar picks known in the prior art are not sufficient to meet the requirements of every musician. For some musicians the indent may be too large and for others the indent too small. Even if a variety of indent sizes are provided, the shape of the indent still fails to conform to the shape of the players fingertips. The shape is as important as the size since an indent which does not conform to the fingertip in shape will not sufficiently provide enhanced gripability. Accordingly, these prior art, grip-enhanced picks are not sufficient to meet the needs of today's hard working musicians.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,341 discloses a thumb pick for use on the thumb of a musician. This pick includes a thumb engaging means for securely coupling the pick to the thumb, a pick portion for engaging a string and an intermediate portion. While the secure attachment of this pick to the thumb may enhance gripability, the pick does not personally conform to the musician's thumb and the pick becomes attached to the thumb on a more permanent basis than desired for other fingers. Accordingly, with this attachment, freedom is lost in that the pick may not easily be changed, temporarily put-down, or moved in position as many musicians desired, for example, to acquire a different gauge pick or to fingerpick.
Materials and objects formed from these materials which may be formed or conformed in various manners under heated or otherwise chemically activated states are also known in the art. However, none of these materials are known to have been used for forming grip-enhanced stringed instrument picks. Some of these materials and objects formed thereby are discussed in the following prior art patents. The materials and patents fall generally into two categories, (1) moisture-hardening materials and (2) thermal hardening/softening materials.
One moisture-hardening material is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,050 to Kimura et al. disclosing a room temperature fast-curing composition. The composition is a condensation-curing type which comprises diorganopolysiloxane or polyoxyalkylene blocked by hydrolyzable silyl group at both terminal ends of its molecular chain as a base polymer, in which a carbonyl group-containing organic compound and an amino group-containing organic compound, are compounded. This composition is capable of forming water through dehydration condensation between carbonyl and amino groups, simultaneously with curing of the composition by moisture in air. The formation of water offers marked improvements in the fast-curing property of the material and also in the depth curing property of the material.
Another moisture-hardening composition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,797 to Khalil et al. Accordingly, a one-part moisture curable polyurethane adhesive composition comprises a blend of polyurethane prepolymers and one or more additives which unexpectedly improve the sag resistance and mechanical properties of the formulation. The final adhesive composition retains good stability in the absence of moisture for an extended period between manufacture and application of the adhesive, and has a relatively rapid and consistent cure rate in the presence of atmospheric moisture. The final cured composition exhibits good mechanical properties and generally is unaffected by ambient application and cure conditions.
A thermal-softening composition is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,563 to Huybrechts for forming a remoldable dental article. The article, due to the composition disclosed therein, is capable of daily reheating and remolding for repeated daily customization to the shape of the user. The composition sets at 37.degree. C. and is moldable between 50.degree.-95.degree. C. Another thermal-hardening composition is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,054 to Pasini. This patent discloses a composition which is controlled and program hardened to record dental impressions and which is free of any gel-forming components, peroxide-based catalysts, aromatic compounds and incompatible plasticizers.
In accordance with the known prior art such as the above references, there exists no disclosure of a stringed musical instrument pick or plectrum formed from a moisture or thermal hardening/softening composition so as to form a stringed musical instrument pick having a grip personalized to the fingertips of the musician.
There exists a need, therefore, for a stringed musical instrument pick having the fingertip impressions of the stringed instrument musician formed into the material of the pick for enhancing and personalizing the grip thereof.